Nicknamed ‘The Red Terror’, Phar Lap was a mammoth chestnut gelding, who stood 17.1 hands high and achieved legendary status in Australia, and beyond, in the early years of the Great Depression. He was, in fact, foaled at Seadown Stud, near Timaru, New Zealand on October 4, 1926 and was bought, sight unseen, as a yearling by American-born businessman David J. Davis, at the behest of Syndney trainer Harry Telford.
Displeased with his purchase, Davis refused to pay training fees and the pair entered an agreement whereby Telford would receive two-thirds of any prize money won instead. Telford leased the horse for three years and at the end of that period was sufficiently well off to enter into joint ownership.
All told, Phar Lap made 51 starts, winning 37 of them, including 36 between September 1929 and March 1932. His major victories on home soil included the Australian Derby at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney in 1929, the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne in 1930 and the W.S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse, Melbourne twice, in 1930 and 1931.
Just over a fortnight after his final, record-breaking victory in the Agua Caliente Handicap at Agua Caliente Racetrack, near Tijuana, Mexico – at the time, the most valuable race run in North America – Phar Lap died, under mysterious circumstances in Menlo Park, California. In the early afternoon of April 5, 1932, he haemorrhaged to death, drenching groom Tommy Woodcock in blood in the process.
A subsequent autopsy revealed inflammation of his stomach and intestines, leading to various theories about his cause of death, ranging from acute gastroentiritis to accidental, or deliberate, arsenic poisoning. His skeleton is on display at Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, in Wellington and his taxidermied hide remains the most popular exhibit at Melbourne Museum.